


Stealth Dating

by msgordo (kipplemine)



Series: New Frontiers [1]
Category: The Sentinel
Genre: First Date, First Kiss, First Time, Humor, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2017-11-25 04:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/634909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kipplemine/pseuds/msgordo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Previously titled 'Cliche Away!' and published to the 852 Prospect Archive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stealth Dating

Jim Ellison was forced to admit that as seductions went he’d planned better. He’d started off well enough, certainly. The loft was warm and intimate, but not uncomfortably so. The company was, well, as perfect as he could ever wish for. In fact he hadn’t really run into a problem until he’d placed his date’s dinner down in front of them and realised in a moment of stunning clarity that when the carefully cooked steak, jacket potato and salad had been consumed then he would be forced to make his move and for the first time since he was fifteen he had absolutely no _clue_ as to what he was going to do.

Of course, thinking about it, probably the first thing he should do was clue his date in on the fact that they _were_ a date. Jim scowled to himself and reluctantly cleared his throat. “Say, Chief?”

Blair looked up from where he was practically inhaling his dinner and grinned at his roommate through a mouthful of mushy potatoes and some shredded carrots. “Yeah, Jim?”

“Uh,” Jim stared at the less than desirable picture his friend was currently presenting and continued weakly, “You had a good day?”

Blair squinted at his partner for a moment before nodding slowly and continuing to chew as he answered, “Yeah, I guess.” He swallowed -- earning himself Jim’s eternal gratitude -- and said carefully, “I was with you all day, remember?”

“Right, right.” Jim snagged his beer from the table and chugged it back whilst watching Blair watching him expectantly for whatever came next. “Yeah. Good day. Good, uh…”

“Day?” Blair -- reluctantly -- put his knife and fork down and with a last longing look at his plate gave his Sentinel his undivided attention. “Yeah, you said that. You okay? Something on your mind?”

Jim placed his beer bottle back on the table, profoundly relieved that Blair had given him the opening he needed to initiate the conversation he’d been meaning to have since what felt like forever. Jim straightened his shoulders and reminded himself he was an ex-Ranger, covert-ops, detective of the _year_ ; he could do this. Finesse was practically his middle name. “You know this is a date, right?” 

Okay, so maybe not _really_ his middle name, but ‘emotional-screw-up-and-all-around-jerk’ was just so much more of a mouthful.

Blair stared for a moment and then took a careful look at his surroundings in case he’d missed two leggy women hiding in the shadows of the loft. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully when he failed to find any and he leaned back in his chair to tilt his head slightly as he took a surreptitious glance under the table just to be sure. Nope, nobody there either. He looked back up at his mortified looking partner and swallowed to ease his dry throat. “A date?” He swallowed again and clarified warily, “Uh, you mean between _us_ , right?”

Jim nodded thankfully. “Right. Exactly.”

Blair nodded back. “Okay.” He eyed Jim with admirable calm and then said carefully, “I thought we were gonna watch a movie?”

Jim beamed at his partner. “Yeah, that’s the plan, Chief.” Much happier now that he’d got the whole stealth-dating thing off his chest, Jim picked up his knife and fork again and resumed attacking his steak with gusto. “It’s on in ten, eat up, buddy.”

Blair watched him some more and then shifted uneasily in his chair. “Uh, Jim?” He waited until his roommate glanced up at him with a determinedly closed mouth smile in deference to the mouthful of salad he was chewing and continued hesitantly, “I’m, uh, just wondering how tonight, y’know, being on a date and all, is, uh, different to any _other_ night, man.” Blair circled one hand rather limply in the air, stared at it like he’d never seen it before and then tucked out of sight on his lap and concentrated on looking as butch as a long-haired, five foot eight and a half anthropologist could look. “Y’know, all those other nights where we sit down and eat dinner and watch a movie and _don’t_ have a date.”

Jim cut himself off a manly portion of his steak and shoved it into his mouth to give himself something to chew on whilst he mulled over Blair’s more than reasonable question. His noble brow furrowed in earnest thought as he chewed and chewed and then finally swallowed with an annoyed grunt and the beginnings of a scowl marring his handsome face. “Hell I don’t know, Chief; you’re the observer, you tell me.”

Blair, understandably, felt this reply was very unfair. He also didn’t think it was fair that he was being called upon to justify a date that -- until a few moments previously -- he hadn’t realised he was actually _on_ , and he felt it particularly unfair that he was required to do all this stone cold sober having only sipped at his beer and _not_ mainlined the alcohol intravenously which was the only way he felt he could have coped with this particular situation so suddenly thrust upon him. He glared at Jim and picked up his knife and fork again as he said sourly, “I observe human nature, Jim, and you are clearly some kind of a pod person or an alien. Do your own damn explanations.”

Far from being discouraged, Jim smiled delightedly at Blair – the action finally achieving what his startling pronouncement couldn’t do and making his buddy truly nervous as in Blair’s bitter and plentiful experience Jim Ellison didn’t as a general rule do delighted – and ignored the sudden panicked look in his best friend’s eyes to say, “Well it’s Friday.”

Blair’s eyes darted around the familiar cosiness of the loft just in case he’d missed a sunrise along with Jim’s sudden change in sexuality and then nodded in tentative agreement. “Yeah?”

Jim nodded firmly, his expression stating that he now felt that all questions had been answered adequately and they should move the conversation along. “Yeah. You want some more salad?”

“Uh, no thanks.” Blair waited expectantly for a more expansive answer from Jim and then frowned when he realised that the bastard apparently was serious about naming a day of the week as a reason for hitting on his roommate. “Jim, I’m gonna need a little something more to work with here.”

Jim sighed patiently, “And neither of us are injured or about to drop from exhaustion.” He fixed Blair with a sudden baleful look. “Or out on another date with someone else.”

Blair looked down at himself, noted the lack of bandages and was forced to agree that, yes, he was in unusually good health both physically and mentally and he was most definitely not out with one of his many girlfriends having a nice normal date which somehow never seemed to involve having surreal conversations over congealing meat and questioning his roommate’s gender preferences for romantic liaisons or indeed his own leanings in that particular direction. He looked back up at Jim helplessly. “Yeah?”

Jim looked equally helplessly back across the table. “So this is the perfect time, right?”

The silence stretched long and painfully between them before Blair glanced over his shoulder at the loft door and enquired plaintively, “Would it help if I went out and came back in again and we started this evening off from scratch?”

Jim glared and said shortly, “No.” The glare intensified as Jim continued irritably, “Jesus, Chief, you’re acting like we’re not even in love here.”

Blair swayed in his seat and repeated blankly, “We’re in love?” His already dangerously wide eyes widened further in his pale face and he licked his suddenly dry lips. “You and _me_?”

Jim’s hands clenched into fists as they lay on the table and he heaved a frustrated sigh. “Well of course you and me! Do you see anyone else around here?” He glowered pointedly around their cosy home. “No. Just us, Chief. Doing what we do.”

Blair licked his lips again. “And what we do is…?”

Jim’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Are you doing this on purpose?” One of his hands unclenched and he stabbed an accusing finger at Blair. “’Cause I gotta tell you, Chief, I am not finding this funny. Get with the program here.”

Blair stared some more at Jim and then sunk his head down into his waiting hands, weakly muttering, “I think I’m having an aneurysm.”

Jim snorted and snatched up his knife and fork again to attack the remnants of his meal with extreme prejudice. “Tell me about it. I swear, Sandburg, trying to seduce you brings a whole new meaning to the word frustrating.” He eyeballed the top of his companion’s head and concluded grumpily, “And you’re wasting a perfectly good steak dinner there, Darwin.”

Blair’s head came up at that and he stared incredulously at Jim. “This you call a seduction? How do you _ever_ get laid?”

Jim rolled his eyes. “That’s my whole point. I _don’t_.” He speared the last bite of his steak tetchily. “Because I’m in love with you and I don’t want to lay anyone _but_ you. Jerk.”

Despite himself, Blair’s lips twitched in amusement. “Oh yeah. That’s romantic.”

Jim threw down his cutlery in exasperation. “Hey, I was shooting for romantic and then _someone_ blew that idea out of the goddamn water by being a complete asshole about this whole thing and practically needing a set of Cliff notes to follow the goddamned conversation here!”

Blair’s lips twitched again and he said with blatantly false contrition, “Sorry, Jim.”

Jim started to reconsider the whole dating idea and instead started to think longingly about a shovel, a deep hole in some remote spot and the peace he would enjoy if he declared himself resolutely Sandburg free for the rest of his life.

Blair sobered as he caught the twitch in his friend’s jaw and the suddenly faraway look in his eyes and sighed gently as he said, “Jim, you have to understand this has come totally out of left field for me here. I’m going to need a couple of minutes to process this, okay?”

Jim came back from the theoretical wildflower filled meadow where he was mentally making his yearly pilgrimage to where he’d planted the most thoroughly aggravating person of his acquaintance and sighed himself -- although with a great deal more irritation -- when he saw the much loved face filled with concern before him. “Okay. Sorry, Chief.”

Blair smiled fleetingly in gratitude, shifted on his chair uncomfortably and then stood up. “I need to work off some energy here; you mind?”

Jim shrugged. “Sure.” He watched as Blair paced away from him and took a fast circuit of the living room before raising his voice slightly and saying with evil humour, “Although if you’d just stop being a jerk about this then I could show you some other ways to work that energy off.”

Blair tripped rather suavely over his own feet and disappeared out of sight behind the couch with an accompanying heavy thump.

Jim winced. “Sorry. Bad timing.” He stood up as Blair failed to rise from the floor where he had fallen and crossed the room to peer hesitantly around the couch. “Blair?”

Blair lay face down with his nose pressed into the rug covering the hardwood floor and his limbs sprawled inelegantly akimbo. “I don’t think that was necessary, Jim.” He rolled onto his back, narrowly missing a collision between his head and the coffee table, and peered in baleful reproach up at the penitent Sentinel. “Seriously, man, that was _totally_ uncool.”

“Sorry.” Jim rubbed a weary hand over his eyes and sunk down onto the arm of the couch as he complained bitterly, “Normally my dates are a lot smoother than this.”

Blair snorted and continued to lay in a rumpled sprawl on the floor. “Yeah, because normally you’re dating a woman.” He fixed Jim with a decidedly unimpressed glare. “And they actually _know_ they’re on a date.”

Jim glared back. “Right, like you’d have gone along with this if I’d have told you about it beforehand. You’d have been out that door like…like…”

“Like the latest in our ever increasing line of psycho killers was after my ass?” helpfully Blair picked up where Jim trailed off. Then his innate sense of humour kicked in and he grinned up at Jim’s stricken face. “Instead of just my roommate deciding he wanted it instead.”

Jim opened his mouth to indignantly protest, caught the merry twinkle in Blair’s eyes and huffed a reluctant laugh. “Yeah, kinda.” His face suddenly radiated seriousness as he looked intently down at the man on the floor. “So, now you know, are you alright with this?” He cleared his throat nervously. “With, uh, us?”

Blair blinked and then moved to prop himself up on his elbows as he tilted his head back to study the ceiling and thus avoid Jim’s tediously observant eyes. “Oh man, Jim, I don’t know. I mean, I _love_ you, that’s never been in any doubt, you know that. You gotta know, if I ever had to choose between you and, well, anything then it’s gonna be you, buddy. It’s _always_ gonna be you.” 

Jim nodded, unsurprised. Blair was right, that had never been in any doubt despite his tragically over-developed fear based responses and alarming tendency to run amok proclaiming betrayal and intrigue every time something came up that didn’t immediately fit into his world view. He smiled hesitantly at the curve of Blair’s tipped back chin. “I know, Chief. It’s that way for me too.”

That earned the ceiling a beaming smile. “Yeah. That’s pretty cool.” The smile faded. “But, well, I’ve never looked at another guy that way, y’know? I mean, you’d have noticed if I’d been looking at you like that, right, Jim?”

Jim looked startled to say the least. “Me? Why would I notice something like that?”

Blair’s head dropped forward and he stared at Jim’s baffled face. “Jim, you’re a Sentinel. Surely you can sense when people are attracted to you and when they’re not. I mean, you didn’t just whip this whole night up on the strength of a hunch, right?” A long, embarrassed silence stretched between them and Blair’s eyes narrowed as he repeated pointedly, “ _Right_?”

Jim stopped looking startled and started to look outraged. “You think I use the Sentinel thing to _spy_ on you?”

It was Blair’s turn to look startled. “You mean you don’t?”

Jim stood up decisively and moved with grim determination towards the kitchen and the heavy cast iron skillet that was housed there. “Fair warning, Sandburg, I’m giving you a thirty second head start and then I am going to pound you into _mush_.”

“Whoa, man, whoa!” Blair scrambled up from the floor and headed after Jim, only giving the taller man a brief eye roll when he grabbed the skillet and swung it forcefully through the air. “I just kinda thought it’d be one of the perks of the whole thing, y’know? Sort of your own little inside track on the dating game.” He placed a hand on Jim’s arm and looked at him with compassion. “Let’s face it, you need all the help you can get, buddy.”

Jim’s breath was stolen at the outrageous slur cast on his dating abilities and he put the skillet down and began eye the oven thoughtfully. Sandburg was a pretty small guy. If he really worked at it he could probably squish him in there and only have to cut off one or two limbs to close the door. His thoughtful eye tracked back to the compassionate face still lifted to his. He was willing to bet all that hair would go up a treat.

Blair smiled warmly, oblivious to all plans for his imminent demise. “It’s not like you’ve got a lot else going for you in the way of Sentinel perks, right?” 

Jim stared at him boggle-eyed and seriously wondered -- not for the first time -- what drugs Naomi might have taken whilst still carrying Blair. Surely the man couldn’t be this clueless and still live? “Chief, I got you. _You’re_ my perk.” He snorted at Blair’s dumbstruck expression and added less romantically but with just as much feeling, “Asshole.”

Blair stared…and stared…and then stared some more. In fact he began to seriously doubt that he’d ever be able to tear his eyes away from Jim’s flushed, grumpy looking face ever again. The man, his partner, friend and living embodiment of his field of study and lifelong obsession with Sentinels was actually serious. Jim Ellison thought he, Blair Sandburg, was worth having had his entire life turned upside down for. Blair’s knees trembled and he flopped down onto the floor with a grunt. “I think the aneurysm’s back.”

Jim gave a grunt of his own and leaned back against the countertop as he crossed his arms defensively over his chest. “Good.” He glared at the top of Blair’s head. “I hope it hurts.”

Blair stared at Jim’s bare feet and tried to swallow to ease the dryness of his mouth. “You’re actually serious here, aren’t you? I mean about you and me.” He swallowed again and addressed Jim’s left big toe with painful earnestness, “I love you, man, I really do, I just never, kinda, _y’know_ …”

Jim grunted and glared harder at the top of the curly head bowed down by his knees. “Yeah, and I have? Jesus, Sandburg, you think I wanted this? Wanted _you_?”

Blair gasped in indignation. “What, there’s something wrong with me here? I’m not good enough for the great Jim Elli…mmfph!” He stared wide-eyed into Jim’s face when his partner crouched, grabbed his chin and then, with all the usual subtly that Jim Ellison normally applied to his day-to-day life, stopped Blair’s annoyed reply by the simple method of bringing their mouths together for their first kiss. Blair stayed frozen under Jim’s touch as their mouths just pressed together slackly and they stared into each other’s eyes and then he continued to stare as Jim drew back with a nod of satisfaction. “Jim, man, what the _hell_ was that?” 

Jim nodded ruefully as he sat down next to Blair and stretched his legs out before him comfortably. “Yeah, I’ve had better too.” He turned to look Blair up and down and then flashed a lightening smile as his friend looked mightily offended at his assessment of their actions. “Chief, don’t sweat it, I’m sure we’ll get better with practice.”

Blair – in a stunning impression of Jim at his most frustrated – ground his teeth and hissed, “I don’t usually need practice. The reason being I normally don’t go around kissing my male roommate!”

Jim tilted his head and smiled again. “Well, to be strictly accurate, _I_ kissed _you_ , but go on.”

Blair nearly popped a molar he was grinding his teeth so hard, but he managed to spit out, “Why the hell are you being so reasonable about this, Jim? Why am I the only freaking out here? Jesus, deciding to change your sexuality isn’t some kind of overnight thing, you know? You’re being so practical about this, like you just sat down one day and made some kind of a list and then checked the pros and the cons and…” His head swivelled around to allow him to stare incredulously at Jim as the bigger man stiffened guiltily. “Oh my God. You did.” He stabbed an accusing finger at Jim’s red face. “You made a _list_!”

Jim flushed harder and muttered defensively, “Just a small one.”

Blair was starting to feel really petty and so was not at his best when he muttered spitefully back, “Yeah, was laying really crappy kisses on your partner at the top of the list?”

“You know what, that’s it.” Jim moved so fast he blurred and was up and over by the dining room table before Blair even had a chance to blink. “You think this is easy for me telling you this stuff, that I like laying myself open like this? Screw you, Sandburg, I don’t need this shit and I don’t need _you_.”

Blair stayed on the floor and gaped at Jim’s now white face. “What? Jim, man, I was just kidding.”

Jim’s fists clenched at his sides and his eyes spat blue fire. “Yeah, well excuse me if I don’t think this is funny. I’m trying here, really trying, and all you can do is laugh at me and make dumb fucking jokes…”

“AND TELL YOU I LOVE YOU, YOU IDIOT!” The roar from Blair had both men freezing in shock and Blair sucked in a calming breath before repeating in a reasonably collected manner, “And tell you I love you.” The blood drained from his face and his eyes unfocused as he said quietly, “Holy shit, I love you.”

Jim closed his eyes and nearly swayed with relief. “I know. I love you too. That was kinda the point of the whole date thing, you know. I just figured one of us should say something and we should get it out in the open, maybe even talk about it a little. See where we wanted to go with it.”

Blair, however, was still stuck on the whole love thing and in no condition to talk about it just yet. “Jesus, I _love_ you.”

Jim squinted at him dubiously and then sat down in one of the abandoned chairs from their meal with a weary sigh. “Take your time. I’ll be right here.” He sat and watched Blair stare blankly ahead of himself for a few moments before offering hesitantly, “You want another beer?”

Blair stopped staring blankly at the tops of his toes and glared at Jim in disgust. “No I don’t want another freakin’ beer. I just found out that I’m kinda gay here, Jim, I really don’t think a beer’s gonna cut it, y’know?”

Jim nodded understandingly. “Right. Sorry.” He sat back to watch Blair again and then questioned pragmatically, “What about a whisky, would that help?” 

Blair sunk his head into his hands with a heartfelt groan. “Jim, you’re meant to try and get me drunk _before_ you hit on me, man, not after.” A pair of disgruntled blue eyes peeked out from between his fingers. “Jerk.” A long silence stretched again between them before Blair scrubbed his hands briskly over his face and looked up with determination in his eyes. “Okay, so, we love each other. That’s good. We can work with this.”

Jim looked pleasantly surprised. “Really?”

Blair ignored him and settled himself more comfortably on the floor, legs crossed and arms resting loosely on top of them. “Right, when did you know? How did you know? Cm’on, talk to me, man.”

Jim looked vaguely ill. “What?”

“Do not screw around with me now, Jim.” Blair glared fiercely at the newly recognised love of his life and bared his teeth for good measure. “You wanted to talk, so we’re going to talk. Or did you just think we’d say we loved each other, fall into each other’s arms and then trip lightly off up the stairs to bed?” He rolled his eyes in disgust as Jim coughed uncomfortably and shifted in his seat. “God, no wonder you never manage to hang onto a woman.”

“Hey!” Rallying briefly in his own defence, Jim straightened in his chair and glowered back at Blair. “I’m not exactly tripping over many long term female guests in your half of the loft, Casanova. I think we’re both pretty even when it comes to screwing up relationships, okay?”

Blair huffed in indignation and then flashed a weak attempt at a grin. “Well, duh, Jim; we _are_ gay here.” His mouth formed into an ‘oh’ of sudden comprehension. “So _that’s_ why you don’t like me bringing girls back here.”

Jim’s eyes widened and then rolled dramatically. “Jesus, are you sure you’re college material? I’m beginning to think that kindergarten is more your speed.” He quirked a pointed eyebrow at Blair. “And for someone who pays rent and his fair share of the living expenses around here, you sure didn’t put up too much of a fight about that, Chief. Maybe you had your own reasons for that, huh?”

Blair opened his mouth, shut his mouth, glared at Jim and then finally hissed, “Shit.” He switched his glare to his lap and scowled unseeingly at his groin. “ _Shit_.”

Jim nodded somewhat smugly and folded his arms across his chest with a rather premature air of triumph. “Uh-huh. Shit. Exactly.”

Blair stopped glaring at his groin and decided it was much more fulfilling to glare at Jim again. “And you didn’t think to say anything? Like, drop me a clue here?” 

Jim raised a hand to pinch at the bridge of his nose and said wearily, “Chief, we live together, we vacation together, we go to social functions together, we work together, hell, we even go to the damn _doctor’s_ together…how much more of a clue do you need?” His hand fell away from his face and Jim complained petulantly, “I thought I was meant to be the King of Repression around here, not _you_.”

Blair gave repression one last old college try and muttered not the least bit convincingly, “We’re best friends.”

“We’re _married_ , Sandburg.” Jim scowled bitterly at the love of his life. “I can’t see my life without you in it anymore and I’m so damn tired of sleeping alone waiting for you to realise it.”

Blair blinked stupidly for a moment, took another moment to imagine walking out the door and not having Jim in his life ever again and then succumbed to the inevitable with a very surprised, “I don’t want to leave you!”

Jim looked almost pathetically relieved. “You mean that?”

“Yeah, man, I do.” Blair indulged in some more intent staring at his toes again as he let this new information settle in his mind and then slowly smiled as he realised beneath the understandable panicking about the whole bed and sleeping with Jim thing, he was actually pretty okay about being in love with a man thing. He glanced up and eyed Jim with thoughtful intensity. “Stand up.” He waited patiently whilst Jim squinted suspiciously at him and then slowly stood. “Great. Turn around.” Jim looked even more suspicious, but reluctantly complied and Blair looked for the very first time at his friend with the eyes of a lover instead of a buddy. To his continuing surprise it wasn’t as hard as he thought. 

Jim whirled back around at the snort of laughter from Blair and snapped, “What?”

Blair waved a hand apologetically and tried to sober his expression. “Sorry, Jim. Bad mental pun.” He took a deep breath and then got up off the floor to walk slowly towards his Sentinel and stopped inches away with a shy smile. “So, this is us now, huh?”

Jim squinted at him uncertainly. “That’s it? No more talking?”

Blair shrugged. “What’s there to say? You love me, I love you; I’m pretty sure the physical side of things will work out if we give it some time and we both think that there won’t be anyone else for either of us ever again.” He shot Jim a blinding smile. “We’re pretty much stuck with each other, man. We don’t have a choice here.”

“Oh.” Jim felt vaguely disgruntled; he hadn’t even gotten a chance to give his big passionate speech that he’d been working on along with the list that he’d put together and he felt a little short changed that the one time in his life he’d been prepared to open up emotionally and lay it all on the line he’d been effectively derailed by Blair’s annoying habit of being so open minded that his brain was constantly in danger of leaking out of his ears. “Well. Okay, then.” He scowled suddenly. “What do you mean we’re stuck with each other? That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement, Chief.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, Jim.” Blair -- still reeling from the unexpected tangent his planned uncomplicated evening had veered off into -- fumbled for the right words as he caught the glimmer of hurt in Jim’s eyes. “I just meant…shit, I can’t explain it. It’s just like I’ve been looking at one of those trick pictures, y’know? The ones where it looks like there’s just hundreds of little dots but then you squint and turn your head and suddenly there’s like a school of dolphins or something and it all makes sense. You made me squint, man, and now I’m not just seeing the dolphins I’m seeing the whole damn ocean and I think I’m _drowning_ here, Jim.”

Jim nodded and felt much better as Blair began to exhibit all the sign of a panic attack. This was more like it. “I know, Chief, it’s okay.” He slowly reached out and gathered his hyperventilating partner into his arms as he whispered seductively, “If it makes you feel any better, when I realised what was going on I threw up everything I ate for two days straight.”

Blair gasped a strangled laugh and pushed his sweating face into Jim’s chest as he muttered absolutely truthfully, “I’ve never wanted you more.”

Jim grinned stupidly through the rough tangle of curls currently trying to work their way up his nostrils and held Blair more firmly. “Want to try the kissing part again?”

Blair squeezed his eyes shut as tightly as he could for a moment before squaring his shoulders and removing his face from Jim’s nicely developed chest. “Okay.” He tilted his face up to Jim’s and said, “Hit me.”

“Oh yeah, and I’m the one with no romance?” Jim shook his head and brought one hand up to cup Blair’s nervous face. “Relax, this won’t hurt a bit.” Gamely ignoring his own nervously churning stomach, Jim dipped his head and brushed his mouth softly across Blair’s, grinning slightly as the smaller man gasped and then rather obviously forced himself to stay still and not run screaming for the door. Just this once he allowed himself to dial up his senses around his partner and subtly check that Blair really was as okay with this new development as he claimed to be. The grin widened as under the tang of nervousness hovering around them both two distinct scents of aroused pheromones also registered. Jim’s grin widened. “You smell pretty good, Chief.”

Blair stared owlishly into Jim’s eyes. “I thought you said you didn’t use your senses on me?”

“I don’t.” Jim bent his head further forward and explained huskily, “It always felt kinda tacky, like an unfair advantage or something. I figured that if we were gonna do this then it had to be as equals.” He slowly dragged his mouth along Blair’s jaw line and reached his ear. “I want to be someone that you can trust and respect, Blair.”

Blair’s eyes crossed as Jim gently worried the lobe of his ear between his teeth and then softly began to play his tongue over the warm skin. “You’ve always had that, Jim, _always_.” His hands moved slowly up Jim’s back and stroked with increasing confidence over the firm muscles. “This feels good.” He gasped as Jim hummed in agreement and sucked his earlobe back into his mouth again. “ _Really_ good.”

Jim reluctantly abandoned Blair’s ear and began the journey back to his lips. “I know what might feel better…”

It was to the great relief of all concerned that Jim’s earlier prediction of getting better with practice was proved absolutely correct over the next few minutes. Privately Blair decided that they were actually improving so much that they might even be ready to leave the amateur leagues behind them and turn professional before the end of the night. Not bad for two guys that had started the evening out on a secret date and habitually heterosexual.

Admittedly things had been slightly clumsy when they had moved over to the couch to try and pick up the pace a little, but with minimal frustration they had managed to arrange themselves in each other’s arms and a necking session had begun in earnest. Surprisingly it was Jim who eventually pulled away, panting heavily and more than a little stunned around the eyes, gasping, “Blair, wait a minute.” He shuddered as one determined hand stroked down his torso and headed for his hip and he grabbed a little wildly for Blair’s wrist. “Chief!”

“What?” Blair pulled back at the desperate command and blinked dazedly up at Jim from where he was curled warmly against his side. “What’s the matter?”

“Do you know what you’re doing here?” Jim kept his grip tight on Blair’s wrist and his eyes panicked as he stared down at his partner. “I mean, what we do next?”

Blair looked a little puzzled. “Jim, I know it’s been a while for you, big guy, but…”

Offended again, Jim narrowed his eyes and then blurted, “No, I mean, I know what to do, I just don’t know _what_ I want to do. What I can, uh, handle.”

“Oh.” Blair pulled back a little and peered thoughtfully at Jim. “Right.” He considered the problem and then sat up a little more. “Yeah, I see what you mean.” He frowned to himself and muttered, “The kissing’s good, but…”

“Yeah.” Relived, Jim nodded. “Exactly. We were doing pretty well there but sooner or later it would have come down to…”

Blair held up his hand and winced. “Got it!” He chewed on his lower lip that was still swollen from Jim’s kisses and darted a look at his partner’s face. “We definitely agree that we need to take this slowly?”

Jim’s face softened from his worried expression and he reached out to lightly skim a curl with the tip of one finger. “Yeah, this is too important to rush I think.” His skin darkened a little in a slightly discomfited blush. “Whenever I used to think about us together like this I was always kind of hazy on the details. I wanted us I just couldn’t really _see_ us.” 

Blair stared for a moment, utterly charmed, and then clapped his hands together softly. “Well, you know where we go from here, right, Jim?”

Jim eyed him warily and thought glumly that whatever Blair was about to say it probably wouldn’t be anything that he wanted to hear. It never was when Blair got that happy there-are-tests-looming-on-the-horizon note in his voice. “Where, Chief?”

Blair’s face split in a radiant smile as he breathed one of his favourite words in any language, “ _Research_.”

~*~*~*

The End.


End file.
